Internships are Not Mechanisms for MObility. Rather, they help those Already at the top of the stratification system.

Despite anticipatory agency, without the financial means, an individual’s aspiration to achieve upward mobility is particularly difficult. If a job applicant lacks an array of unpaid internships on his or her resume, they are often immediately taken out of consideration. Not only does this hurt individuals within the labor market, but it also “restructures the market itself” (Kendzior, 2013). For example, take a look at the $22,000 auctioning of an internship at the United Nations, promising insider knowledge of its operations. Sarah Kendzior shares her insight as she exposes the UN’s ironic offer. As an institution that prides itself on “inclusion, diversity, and equality” with the goal to promote world justice, it hypocritically counters its own principle. Credentials are no longer achieved on a basis of merit, but rather personal wealth. As Kendzior puts it, there are countless “barriers to entry” such as family position, educational attainment, wealth accumulation and social environment. To address the point made earlier, these barriers also affect structural opportunity, as service jobs are more accessible to the average young person than a high status career.Image taken from: https://www.naceweb.org